6 June 2003

REGIMENTATION TALK TO SABOTAGE PM'S PEACE MOVE?

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: The most crucial are the years of youth when they are in their teens or early twenties. It is the period when they struggle and plan their future, their careers. Think of someone stealing away two precious years from this period and that too without their consent.

That is the import of the 2-year compulsory military training proposed for all youths by BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu while addressing a convention of the party's ex-servicemen's wing here on Wednesday.

Is Naidu proposing the idea as he forsee India getting into a major war in the near future when all people may have to take arms and fight for the country? Is he not debunking the Prime Minister's efforts for talks and peace with Pakistan by fueling such war fears?

The Congress reacted sharply to the proposal on Friday, pointing out that India is not a regimental country whose people can be drafted to the military forcibly.

Naidu is not indulging in ideal kite-flying but revealing a part of the RSS ideology and he did not shy in asserting that the military drafting would inculcate a sense of patriotism.

It is another matter that the compulsory drafting in the military would be thrust on the youths in their formidable years to put a brake on their studies, it was affirmed.

But since the proposal has come from the president of the ruling party, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma wanted the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to clarify if Venkaiah's declaration has their sanction. He is asking both since he does not know now who is going to lead the BJP as Vajpayee wants Advani to lead and all the rest are making noises that it is Vajpayee who will continue to lead.

Asked if Congress was opposed to compulsory military training, Anand Sharma shot back that the president of the ruling party has certain constraints and more so when he talks on subjects relating to the national security. If the PM and the Government do not subscribe to what Naidu said, it will have to be denied publicly and restrict him from making such irresponsible statements that create fear psychosis, Anand Sharma said.

The world over, it is always the voluntary army in which the people have joined willingly that is able to put up the best fight and not the armies that are composed of recruits without their consent.

Meanwhile, yet another claim made by Naidu after a meeting of the central office-bearers in Jaipur that the Prime Minister has agreed to set up a national commission to examine reservations for the economically backward upper castes has been nailed by the government.

Instead of announcement of the commission, the Law Ministry has approached the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, to examine the issue. In 1993, the full Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court had struck down 10 per cent reservation to the poor among upper castes that the Congress Government led by P V Narasimha Rao had sought to introduce through an official memorandum on September 25, 1991.

Despite the fact that the Congress attempt to provide reservation to the upper castes was struck down by the apex court, the party continues to harp on effecting it once again through a Constitution amendment. The party spokesman has been demanding the amendment in monsoon session whole of this week as if he was reiterating the "mantra" that becomes a music to the upper caste voters in the states like Rajasthan going to polls in November.

The Supreme Court's ruling is quite clear: Reservation based on economic criteria would be violative of Article 16(4) which permits reservations to the backward class of citizens but not to the poor. The Attorney-General will have to not only recommend how this ruling has to be overcome but he would also have to tackle the restriction put in the same judgement that reservations should not exceed 50, which can be violated only in extremely extraordinary situations.

Tamil Nadu is the state where this 50 per cent ceiling is violated and despite the Supreme Court's directive to the state government to scale back reservations to fall in the limit remains violated till this day. A total of 54 per cent reservation continues conveniently in Tamil Nadu and nobody has gone back to the Court for contempt of its order nor has the Court thought it fit to take up the issue suo motto. Reservation is such a touchy subject that nobody wants to speak out, not even our judges, at least not on their own.

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